Albums Of The Decade : 11 - Eels - Daisies Of The Galaxy (2000)

When it was released at the turn of the decade, one critic described Daisies Of The Galaxy as being to previous eels album Electro-Shock Blues what the Manic Street Preachers' Everything Must Go was to The Holy Bible: in other words, Daisies represented the breaking of sunlight through the clouds after the harrowing subject matter of its predecessor (Electro-Shock Blues dealt with the terminal illness of E's mother and the suicide of his sister). While it's not quite that black-and-white (ESB had its moments of hard-won optimism), it's a pretty useful comparison. Daisies is remarkably light-on-its-feet throughout, even when picking through the bones of a break-up ('It's a Motherf**ker'). The first couple of tracks lay out the gentle, folky vibe that permeates the album, with lyrics like "A roomful of dust and a broom to sweep up/All the troubles you and i have seen"
all the more poignant given their context. There's a rousing, bouncy homage to his mother ('I Like Birds'), the odd, nightmarish rhythms of 'Flyswatter' and the found-sounds collage of 'Estate Sale', but the dominant tone of the album is summed up by the wistful, sublime title track.